Eidos Interactive - New Deus Ex Game Revealed

May 18th, 2007, 00:18

IGN has news via a French TV show that a new Deus Ex game is underway at Eidos Montreal:

In a recent interview on French-language television station MusiquePlus the director of Eidos France, Patrick Melchior, revealed a new Deus Ex game is in the works. The revival of the franchise is the "first mission" of Eidos&#39; new Montreal studio, currently made up of around 40 people.

There are no other details at this stage, other than the game should be unveiled "in a few months". More information.

Originally Posted by doctor_kaz
I wonder who this new studio is. Are these guys RPG rookies or are they veterans from other studios? Do they and Eidos understand what went wrong with the second game? I hope that they do.

Here's something from February 19, 2007 on Eidos' Montreal studios (source URL: http://www.gamasutra.com/php-bin/new…hp?story=12811 ).
By the way, I'd be happy if they announce this for the PC at all. "PC-exclusive" is totally out of reach IMHO.
Anyway, here it is…

Following last week's announcement from major publisher and developer Eidos (Tomb Raider franchise) of a new development outpost in Montreal, Québec, Gamasutra caught up with the studio's new managing director, Stéphane D’Astous to discuss detailed plans for the new studio.

The original announcement from Eidos revealed that the newly revealed Eidos Montreal would work on next-gen titles, creating 350 jobs within the next 3 years, but did not specify what exact games the studio might be working on.

When asked whether existing or original IP was the plan for Eidos Montreal, the exec explained: “While original IP is certainly a possibility, and is something we will consider further down the line, the first project we are working on is an existing IP."

D'Astous added: "That said, this is a major IP that we're going to be doing. We're not ready to announce the specifics yet, mainly because we have not discussed this with our board. But rest assured, it will be major." He would not disclose whether the project will be an internal Eidos IP or a licensed external one.

Explaining Eidos Montreal's overall strategy, D'Astous explained: “Our focus and strategy is not to be the biggest, but rather to do what we do best. We are not a studio that wants to do everything, and be a jack of all trades. We want to focus on our purpose, which is developing AAA next-gen titles, with smaller teams, and longer production schedules.”

Precise development platforms have not been locked down, but Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 seem like a likely initial bet for the studio. While the Eidos Montreal head could not confirm this, he noted that “…the studio will not develop for current gen platforms or portables.” He further expressed possible interest in Eidos Montreal developing for the Wii and PC in the longer-term.

As for studio size, D'Astous indicated that the studio will swiftly ramp up to 110 employees, including a single development team composed of around 70 people. Another similarly sized team will be added in 2008, with another the year after that, making the eventual target three full-sized production teams.

Finally, when quizzed over Ubisoft Montreal's notorious non-compete clauses, D'Astous, who is a former Ubisoft executive, didn't comment on specifics regarding hiring other personnel for Eidos Montreal, but revealed: "When I left Ubisoft, it was part of a mutual agreement. And since it was mutual for all parties, the clause was dropped."

I only hope eidos realizes what went wrong with IW because there are certain reasons why first deus ex was such a blast and success. I will never forgive them if they fail again to make us a worthy sequel.

Another substantial change will come in the new bio-mod system. This will replace the old skill and augmentation systems from Deus Ex, combining them into one more flexible whole.

Looking back, Spector is aghast at the interface that was devised for the original Deus Ex. "I wanted an interface that looked organic … like it was burned into the guy's eye. I failed completely to convey that to the team." The result was several layers of menus, and numerous sub-interfaces that served, in Spector's estimation, to disconnect players from the flow of the action. Those problems have been solved, because in Invisible War, "These guys nailed it." The new UI resurrects the "eye" concept, and combines the resultant round shapes with the idea of rotation. Imagine a transparent series of rings, one within the other, that rotate to different "notches" at your command. Each notch is another menu item, and selecting one item or another will cause different pieces of information to swivel into view on the inner rings. It's hard to describe, so you'll just have to take my word that it looks awfully slick and clever. More importantly, it will eliminate the need for non-standard interfaces (remember the ATMs from the first game?) that interrupt the flow of gameplay.

After that said, it will be a wonder if any of the original Deus Ex developers will be involved in the creation of this new title. As far as I know DX project leader Warren Spector, lead designer Harvey Smith and writer Sheldon Pacotti all have left (Ionstorm/)Eidos as well most others who were involved in the project.

Eidos holds the licenses for both Deus Ex and Thief. They also like to use old licenses a lot like those thousand hitman and tomb raider games they have been pushing out one after another. The last time we saw something remotely Deus Ex stylish was Snowblind which was originally supposed to be some kind of spin off but later got renamed. It was also done by a different studio and was a pure action game in 1st person.

Anyway there's always the blind chance of luck of snowflake dropping in hell that the new developers are going to create just an amazing new title in the franchise they never had part in creating it.

I am sucker for all triple A titles and is usually not to negative until i play them.

Altough i always enjoy a good game, and … its strange, that a triple A title not always is a good game.

I however liked DX2 more then most. But if they didn't had cramped the level to so small entitys. It destroyed every immersion more than getting in an organic eyepiece. Funny how different we see thing.

I've gotten pretty cynical at this point: all I'm hoping for is for it to be as "good" as DX2 (and not worse…I didn't hate DX2 when considered independently, but it was certainly a major disappointment after DX1) and to actually get released for the PC at all.

I still find it discouraging that Spector was "aghast" at the DX1 augmentation system. I quite liked it.